What next?
by Skyblue373
Summary: What happened to Truman immediatley after leaving his fake world? Can he cope in the real world?


Immediately

Panic began to sweep through Truman as fast as a lethal poison. What happens now? It dawned on him that he had nowhere to go… While he had a lot of thoughts going round in hid head about the future he wasn't concentrating on the present and he tripped over a cleaning bucket.

Embarrassedly getting up he realised there were no cameras anymore, why was he embarrassed?

As everything began to fall into place he realised that Sylvia must be in the other true world somewhere!

"She might be on her way now because people will have seen my departure!" he muttered to himself.

With that thought spurring him on he ran through the brightly lit corridors faster than he ever thought possible. He finally came to the main double doors and burst through into real life. For the first time he felt the real sun, warm on his cheeks. He smelt the overwhelming odour of traffic fumes. He saw the busy reality of daily life.

The thing he noticed most though was a soft hand on his shoulder. When he turned around he saw Sylvia with tears of happiness rolling down her cheeks.

She quickly led him away and in a moment they were sprinting through the streets and Truman soon knew what they were running from. Crowds upon crowds of public and press were following them yelling and trying to block their way.

Soon they arrived at a block of flats, they ran up to flat 12B, went in and locked the door.

They sunk into the sofa, panting and tried to block out the furious banging on the other side of the door. It was so close yet almost so distant that it echoed in Truman's brain. It grew louder and louder and he feared that the pounding in his head would cause it to explode. A sweet kind voice broke through the confused clamour as Sylvia said,

"I knew you would work it out!"

Focusing his concentration on her, he replied, "You helped me realise…"

They both were silent for a few minutes until Truman asked the question he was most afraid of asking,

"What happens now?"

5 years later

Sylvia quickly found out that paying for two people is a lot harder than paying for one. The expense of clothes, food and bills became too much and she had to look for work again. Truman was still recognised frequently so they decided that as Sylvia was less well known she needed to go to work.

She had always been very intelligent so she was able to become a professor at the local college. Students still asked about Truman but it had become as reflexive as blinking to just brush them off.

They both agreed that they still cared for each other as much as they did 5 years ago but it would attract too much publicity to get married.

So while Sylvia went to work, Truman became extremely miserable because all he could do was stay at home.

His daily routine was tedious as he and Sylvia couldn't just go out anytime they felt like it and they both felt trapped which put strain on their relationship.

They had thought about moving abroad, Fiji perhaps, but they couldn't afford it and wouldn't be able to for a very long time with just one income.

All around them possible solutions were slipping away and Truman felt as though he was falling into a dark pit and the walls were closing in on him. He was encaged as his life was becoming more and more limited and restricted. Truman was slipping into a state of deep depression and it looked like there was no way out.

15 years on

Summer is lovely. Birds buzzing in trees, just as loud as faulty strip lights. Warm sun on your face and all round bliss……

Except that when you're standing on the edge of Harrods' rooftop in the centre of London these aren't the things you notice. What you might notice is how the air is so much purer up here now all the smog of London's traffic is left below. Or maybe the tiny dots of cars slowly trudging by.

Truman stood noticing all of this and more.

He had been contemplating his whole life up here for an hour now.

His current situation was tragically depressing. Sylvia had left him because she disapproved of his feeble attempts at winning back the public's love. He needed their attention back because what other way was there out of the depression that threatened to completely envelop him?

Sylvia was so upset and believed that Truman was a different man in the real world. So after a tearful goodbye 6 months ago Truman had been living, where he could, at the odd friend's house or hostel.

Now his whole life boiled down to this one moment on the roof of Harrods.

He tried to explain to himself how his and Sylvia's love disintegrated like a crumbling, frozen flower in winter. It simply wasn't strong enough to survive.

He finally allowed himself to think something that he had previously pushed away, had Christof been doing the right thing? Now he had seen and experienced the cruel reality of life, which all humans endure with success and failure, he wasn't so sure he wanted to be one of the ones to endure it…

Had Christof been doing the right thing for all the wrong reasons? In 'The Truman Show' he never saw any hardship, pain or suffering. Everything was offered to him on a plate and he decided to go it alone instead. It was a decision which had gone very wrong.

Was his life really worth anything anymore? Sylvia had left him, he owned just what he was wearing and he didn't have a penny to his name.

He could probably save himself al lot of heartache if he just ended everything, right here, right now.

After a while longer he arrived at a decision. It was one that left him with an odd sense of calm and stillness.

He took a deep breath and made that final step.


End file.
